My Study Group and What's to Come

Last Monday was actually the day that ended my Bible Study group on the book "Steps to Christ" Most of the time throughout this 13 week series - it was just a new friend and I. As I shared - at first I was discouraged about it just being the one person. I had -had high hopes for the group. And although things did not go as I had thought they would, I still believe that God was in control. We were both blessed. And my friend is thinking of starting a group through her church(that is encouraging people to start small groups.) I am not sure if she would have felt capable of having a group if we had not studies this book for the last 3-4 months.

On our last meeting this quote was read in our last chapter. (If you are interested in reading the entire chapter- click on the link.) It ended up being a real blessing to me and I wanted to share it with you all just in case it could bless you too.  

"If we keep uppermost in our minds the unkind and unjust acts of others we shall find it impossible to love them as Christ has loved us; but if our thoughts dwell upon the wondrous love and pity of Christ for us, the same spirit will flow out to others. We should love and respect one another, notwithstanding the faults and imperfections that we cannot help seeing. Humility and self-distrust should be cultivated, and a patient tenderness with the faults of others. This will kill out all narrowing selfishness and make us large-hearted and generous."   SC121

At this point - I am not sure what my plans are - if I will start another study or not. I am going to focus on my family and such and wait on the Lord. If he wants me to do another study- He will make it clear to me. Please pray that God will lead. Thanks so much! :O)

If any of you are interested in looking at or copying out the study guides for "Steps to Christ" just click on this link.

A study that I am very interested in doing - maybe just on my own is from the book " Mount of Blessings. Click HERE for a link to the study guide for it.

Oh I am SO excited! I just found a study guide for a book that I just bought. The book is called " A Sanctified Life" Or click here for a study guide of the book!

So one way or another I will be working on both of these books/study guides- either with others or on my own. I hope you will check them out - maybe you too will be blessed.

Power of Prayer

Just a little something that I saw on Facebook last week that I wanted to share with you all today.
There is so much truth in this.

Earlier I said that my husband had gotten me the "War Room" movie. Well we watched it this afternoon. And I have to say that I HIGHLY recommend it. It lives up to the high standard of the  Kendrick brother movies- such as "Flywheel" "Facing the Giants" "Fireproof" and "Courageous." All of these movies are great and well worth the money spent to add them to your movie collection. Be sure and check out Walmart - or other places - you might be able to get them in a set and save some money.

So the movie is about prayer. a favorite quote from the movie- maybe not word for word -but here it goes "Hey Devil you just got your butt kicked!" said by Clara on the movie. It is a great scene! 

^"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,

against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Ephesians 6:12

 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!  It is certainly not snowing here, in fact it's about 52 degrees and an expected high in the 70's - actually probably just 70 degrees. The sun is shining and it is a pretty day!
My husband❤️ is having to work today. So it's a very quiet day for me. I'm planning on spending time in my sewing room! We don't get our granddaughter until the 28th. That will be when we do our family Christmas.
 My husband got me the movie "War Room" it is by the makes of "Courageous" "Facing the Giant" and "Flywheel" all of which are excellent movies! If you haven't seen them, I highly recommend them! I look forward to seeing this movie!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas! Remember Jesus is the reason for the season!  Love and prayers to you all!

Something to Consider

A friend got this in an email and shared it with me. I thought it was something worth considering:
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The first day of Christmas Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

 -The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.
-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.
-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.-
-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John....
-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.
-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching,Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.
-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.
-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness,Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.
-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.
-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.
-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed.

I Feel Bad...

I feel so bad. I feel as though I have really been neglecting my blog over the last several months. During this time I had some good ideas of things to write about, but most if the time I did not make it to the computer to write out a post. And sometimes I did. So I'm just going to share now that I will try to do a better job of posting and I'll apologize up front just in case I repeat a thought or idea that I may have recently written of.

I look forward to spending more time in Bible study. During the last three months I have been trying to keep up with my Steps to Christ study group study guide. And my Desire of Ages study for Prayer Meeting. And also my Sabbath School lessons each week. So I have been quite busy with uplifting reading and such but I really enjoy studying the Bible and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and direct my studies. There is nothing wrong with all the other studies I've done. I'm just really looking forward to studies in which God leads me to awesome finds that I am then able to share with you all.

I hope you have all been well. I continue to pray for you all. If there are any specific prayers that I could pray for you- don't hesitate leaving a comment with your special prayer request. Thanks to those of you who have stuck with me through these quiet months, I really appreciate each and everyone of you.  :0)

Thrifty Tips

So I wanted to share a thrifty tip that I have been reminded of recently. The last couple of weeks as we have visited a local thrift store- we have found some awesome Christmas items! I realized that I have not really like the new Christmas items sold at stores these days. What brings me more joy is the things made years ago. Not all of what we have found have been considered antiques but - some have been. It just seems that I like things that were made before the last couple of years. The things now seem to not have as much detail and character to them. Anyway so today I wanted to share that if you would like more items to decorate your home for the holidays - you may want to start looking at thrift stores and such because up until this year - I really did not enjoy decorating for Christmas because I did not have as much stuff as I really liked to decorate- and now with a few purchases - I have a decent amount of great things that bring me joy. Now I will look forward to decorating the house for Christmas!

Here is a sampling of some of the great deals we have found:

This center piece I showed last week - $1.00 - and it look great with my table cloth!

I love this "JOY" nativity set. We found this at the Antique Mall and paid just over $3.00 for it.

I love it!  

This next set - almost got over looked by me. In fact, I had walked past it. My husband took a little more time at the Christmas shelf and found it. I was thrilled when I saw it.

And for 75 cents- we thought it was a great deal! 

Oh this photo shows how tiny the set is! We are on the look out for a great little stable for it. Hoping I find something great - when I do - I will post it on here.

And of course this great Mr Christmas Marching Band set - that cost me $5.00 but was well worth the money!  

This next photo shows a cute little set. I actually have the exact same set - that were not made to be ornaments, notice the gold thread on these to hang up. Well my husband found it for about $3.00. We bought it because my granddaughter loves my set. So we bought this set. We cut off the gold thread and we are going to give the set to our granddaughter for Christmas. She loves to decorate her room at her daddies house.

And my plan is that we are going to let her open this present up first. Then we will read our Children's Nativity book and let her play with these guys while the story is read. This will be done before opening the presents.

 

Anyway - so like I said - if you are looking for holiday decorations- you may want to try thrift stores or Goodwill stores. You are sure to find some gently loved great items that will brighten your holidays as well and for a fraction of the price.

 

Oh I actually found my Christmas Cards at my little thrift store for $1.00. And they were very pretty cards! Give it a try. Oh and if you find some great finds come back and share your finds with me! I love to see good deals- even if they are not my good deals! :O)

 

Getting Gas in God's Timing

Did you realize that even when you get gas could be something that is done in God's timing? I did not know until last week. Here is what happened:

My husband had planned on getting gas on his way home from work, but ended up working over a bit and by the time he was headed home - he was too tired. So he decided to wait until the week end and us go get gas. Well we had a lot of errands to run and by the time we were done - we just did not get around to getting the gas. So on Monday on his way home from work - he stopped by QT and filled up. This ended up being a blessing in more than one way. First of all the price for gas had been $1.68 when he filled up. The next morning on his way to work, he noticed prices of gas were $1.86. What a jump in price!

But that was not the biggest blessing. Tuesday morning I got a phone call. It was from the fraud department from our bank needing to speak to my husband. Well I got the phone number to my husband and waited patiently to hear what was going on. Well come to find out someone in Illinois had used my husbands debit card number to make 3 purchases - one of them was for over $100.00! These charges came through and then my husband stopped by QT, a normal place for him to stop, and got gas and the bank knew something was wrong and they cancelled his debit card. And then the next morning contacted us. So as you can see - had my husband gotten gas on Friday or on Sunday - as was his plan - it would have been much longer before this fraud was caught. And it would have been stressful for us indeed. The way it worked out - by him getting gas in God's timing - the problem was taken care of before we realized there was a problem.

I am praising God for this blessing. We don't realize how many blessings we have or how many times we are protected from harm and danger coming our way. God is good and only allows what could be beneficial to us to come our way. The things may be painful but God has promised to give us what we need for each day. As one of my favorite promises says- in my rendition of it- "As are your days, so shall be your strength!" Deut. 33:25b God provides what we need - we just need to look to Him. :O)